generally pressed down only slightly, so as not to prevent the
emission of any odour. On two occasions, however, the surface was
well watered, and was thus rendered somewhat compact. After the
bits of cabbage and onion had been removed, I looked beneath them
to see whether the worms had accidentally come up from below, but
there was no sign of a burrow; and twice the buried objects were
laid on pieces of tin-foil which were not in the least displaced.
It is of course possible that the worms whilst moving about on the
surface of the ground, with their tails affixed within their
burrows, may have poked their heads into the places where the above
objects were buried; but I have never seen worms acting in this
manner. Some pieces of cabbage-leaf and of onion were twice buried
beneath very fine ferruginous sand, which was slightly pressed down
and well watered, so as to be rendered very compact, and these
pieces were never discovered. On a third occasion the same kind of
sand was neither pressed down nor watered, and the pieces of
cabbage were discovered and removed after the second night. These
several facts indicate that worms possess some power of smell; and
that they discover by this means odoriferous and much-coveted kinds
of food.

It may be presumed that all animals which feed on various
substances possess the sense of taste, and this is certainly the
case with worms. Cabbage-leaves are much liked by worms; and it
appears that they can distinguish between different varieties; but
this may perhaps be owing to differences in their texture. On
eleven occasions pieces of the fresh leaves of a common green
variety and of the red variety used for pickling were given them,
and they preferred the green, the red being either wholly neglected
or much less gnawed. On two other occasions, however, they seemed